Beyond Vengeance: Pacific Prep #3

by R. A. Smyth

  A tender smile graces his lips as he looks down at me. “Neither have I,” he admits. With his palm on my cheek, he leans down to place a soft kiss on my lips. It’s slow and steady, but no less passionate than his other kisses as he conveys just how little that slut by the fire means to him.

  “Come on.” He tugs on my arm, pulling me deeper into the forest.

  “Where are we going?”

  “My girl’s not happy, I’ve gotta find a way to put a smile on her face.” He tosses me a dirty wink that has my panties melting. Hmm, I can think of a few ways he can improve my night.

  Half an hour later, we’re both fixing our clothes back in place before we reluctantly return to the party, when I hear a rustle in the trees.

  “Did you hear that?” I whisper, snapping my head in the direction where I swear I just heard a twig snap.

  “Probably just an animal.” He shrugs, unperturbed.

  I squint into the darkness between the trees for another moment, but I don’t see or hear anything else. Yeah, he’s probably right. I’m just being paranoid.

  Shaking it off, the two of us return to the party, and I ignore the scowl on Hawk’s face as I reclaim my seat.

  “Where are Emilia and Michael?” I ask no one in particular.

  “Emilia’s over there.” West points toward where Emilia is grinding on some dude, both of them looking drunk enough that they’ll likely regret their decisions in the morning. “Michael went to get a drink. Are you okay?”

  “All good.” I plaster on an over-the-top cheery smile, although the girls are so drunk by now I could probably fuck West in front of them and they wouldn’t remember it.

  Thankfully, everyone calls it a night not much later and the guys drop off their mostly passed out dates back in their dorms while Daniel walks me to the guys’ apartment. I can see the questions in his eyes, but wisely he keeps them to himself, dropping me off and saying goodnight before disappearing back down the stairwell.

  West’s the first to return, and I can sense how close he is to losing it the second he enters the apartment. Tonight was hard on all of us, and I get the impression he’s feeling particularly out of control at the minute—a feeling that I know he hates.

  His alpha persona is in full control right now as he storms toward me, grabbing me firmly by the wrist and tugging me behind him as he strides toward his bedroom. I have to jog to keep up with his long legs—damn tall man.

  The second the door slams shut behind him, I know I’m in for a fun night of watching West in his element and blissful orgasms.

  He makes me see stars three times before pressing a final searing kiss to my lips. “I love you,” he murmurs. The second the words spill out, his body tenses. I keep running my fingers through his hair as I kiss him, pulling him back into that noxious cloud of passion until he’s once again relaxed.

  “I love you too.”

  Collapsing onto the bed beside me, he sets his glasses on the bedside table and wraps his arms around me, and the two of us fall into a peaceful sleep.

  The first time I said those words aloud to Beck, my heart was slamming against my ribs. Before then, I’d never said the words aloud to another living soul, but since he said them to me several weeks ago, I’ve been thinking about it a lot, trying to put a name on this feeling I have for each of the guys, and I’ve come to the conclusion it has to be love. There’s nothing else it can be. No other word feels big enough to encompass all of these complicated feelings I have for each of them.

  ***

  “Ahhh, look! Look!” Emilia screams, waving a page in my face as she bounces into my room. She didn’t even knock before barging in, making me jump out of bed, thinking some mad man was chasing her.

  “What is it?”

  I snatch the page from her outstretched hand as my heart rate settles back to a normal pace again.

  “Oh my god, Emilia, this is amazing!” I exclaim. “Congratulations!”

  She beams at me, an authentic, brilliant smile that shows how truly happy she is in this moment. And so she should be. She just got a full ride scholarship to one of the most competitive colleges in the state.

  She bounces into my arms and I happily return her hug, letting her squeeze me half to death in her excitement.

  “I can’t believe it. I mean, I know that’s what the last four years have been for. Why I’ve been working my ass off, but I can’t believe it’s real. That it’s really happening.”

  “Believe it, girl. You’re amazing, of course you deserve this.”

  Taking the letter back, she falls onto my bed with a dreamy sigh, staring at the page like it’s a love letter. I guess to her, it is.

  “What are your plans after school?” she asks, looking up at me.

  I move to sit opposite her on the bed. “Eh, I’m not sure. I haven’t really given it much thought.”

  “What? How? It’s your future!” She gapes. Neither of us have really talked about the future in much depth—well, I’ve never talked about the future. I know all about Emilia’s prospective plans. They mean everything to her, but as much as having a feasible plan in place is important to her, not having any idea what my future holds and just seeing what happens along the way is important to me. At least it means I have a future that’s all mine. My whole life has been mapped out by other people, but now I get to decide what I do with my life. I haven’t quite worked out the ‘what’ yet, but the fact I have options is everything.

  “I know, I just haven’t decided what to do with it yet.” I shrug as she continues to stare wide eyed at me.

  “I’d just assumed you’d applied somewhere and were keeping it on the DL until you heard from them.”

  “Nope.” I shake my head, but all this talk about the future has me wondering, do I want to go to college? I’m not exactly academic. If it wasn’t for my fake transcripts, I wouldn’t be here at all. I’m barely scraping through the year, but isn’t college like one of those things you just have to experience? It’s not like I have any ideas of what I want to do with my life, so college could be the perfect place to figure out who I am and what I like.

  Equally, I’ve probably missed all the application deadlines. I don’t know if I can even afford to go to college, and I can’t see my parents being accepting of me just going off and deciding my own future. I feel like I’m forgetting another reason…Oh yeah, the fact Lawrence is trying to drag my ass back to the compound and we’re in the middle of trying to work out how to take down all of our parents and their fucked up company.

  Yeah, college plans might have to wait.

  Chapter 17

  Emilia, Michael, and I are ordering lunch at the kiosk when Daniel and his friends come in behind us. He smiles when he sees us. “Hey.”

  “Hey,” I greet awkwardly. Other than breakfast and parties, we don’t really interact a huge amount, and rarely around other people where we have to pretend to be something we aren't.

  “Dude,” his buddy hisses, jamming his elbow in his ribs. “Ask her to sit with us.”

  “Oh, right, do you, uh, wanna sit with us?” He rubs the back of his neck in obvious embarrassment.

  “Sounds great,” Emilia answers for me, earning herself a ‘what the fuck’ look. She knows this is all for show.

  When her eyebrows waggle up and down a couple of times, I catch on to what she’s silently trying to say. Basically that the guys are hot, and I’d be a horrible friend to rob her of this opportunity.

  “Sure.” I sigh, giving Daniel a tight smile.

  He quickly puts in his order and we follow him over to his table as his friends put in their lunch requests.

  “Sorry,” he whispers in my ear as we take our seats.

  “It’s fine.” I smile so he knows I’m serious. It’s actually been okay spending time with him. If we weren’t busy pretending we’re in a fake relationship, it would be kind of fun. He’s a genuinely nice guy and easy to get along with.

  His friends all join us and Daniel introduces them. Thei
r eyes all bounce inquisitively between myself, Emilia and Michael.

  “Oh, this is Emilia and Michael.”

  “Aren’t you guys scholarship students?” one asshole asks.

  “So?” I snap, glowering menacingly at him, daring him to say one bad word.

  He holds up his hands in surrender. “Didn’t mean anything by it. It’s just that the Princes don’t hang around with the scholarship kids.”

  “Do I look like I have a dick swinging between my thighs? I’m not a Prince, and I’ll be friends with whoever I want to be friends with.”

  “That’s cool. Like I said, I meant nothing by it,” the guy persists, nodding his head frantically.

  The rest of lunch goes by without any issues, but I catch Michael looking quizzically at me several times over the hour, especially when Daniel nudges my shoulder with his and whispers in my ear, making me laugh.

  “Are you actually dating him, or is it just for show?” Michael asks later that afternoon as we head to the library.

  “Why?”

  He shrugs. “You just looked comfortable today at lunch. You’re rarely like that.”

  I guess I had fun. I am learning to let down my walls a bit, and all the frequent touches from the guys have helped me feel more at ease around others.

  “It was fun, but no, I barely know the guy.”

  “Are you dating anybody?”

  I hesitate, wondering how much to tell him, and why he’s even asking that. I know he had a crush on me when I first arrived, but I thought that was long over. I mean, we’re friends, right?

  “Eh, no. Things have been a little hectic, what with the whole Davenport bomb drop and adjusting to that, nevermind throwing a boyfriend in the mix.” I laugh tensely.

  Whatever weird tension was in his shoulders drops out. “Cool.” Before I can ask him why he’s suddenly interested in my love life, he continues on, “We should hang out and do something fun sometime soon. It’s been ages since we caught up.”

  “Yeah, we should,” I agree, feeling bad. Sure, the three of us hang out together a lot, but I haven’t spent much one-on-one time with Michael, and like Emilia, he gave up the only other friends he had when he agreed to be friends with me, so I really need to make more of an effort.

  “We could book a theater room for tonight. I’ll grab us some ice cream and coffee.”

  I hesitate for only a second, thinking of the guys, but I’m not that needy girlfriend who has to be with them every spare minute of the day, so I quickly chastise myself and agree to tonight.

  We spend the rest of the afternoon in the library getting some work done, and that night I stop by Emilia’s room, wanting to get her two cents on the conversation I had with Michael earlier, before I head out to meet with him. I still struggle with navigating these newfound friendships, and I can’t figure out if Michael was off earlier, or if I’m just reading too much into it.

  “Hmm, sounds like he still has a thing for you,” Emilia unhelpfully tells me, making me groan.

  “What am I supposed to do about that?” Now I feel super awkward and don’t even know if I should meet up with him tonight.

  “Nothing. You’re not leading him on. He’s a teen boy, he’ll get over it.”

  “So you think I should still hang out with him tonight?”

  “Absolutely.” She nods her head. “You’re still his friend, and he’s probably confused about everything going on with you lately, what with you spending a lot of time with the guys, and now with Daniel. He could be feeling insecure that you don’t have time for him anymore. Tonight will hopefully put him at ease.”

  Feeling reassured, I head over to the rec center to meet up with him. The night is actually good fun, and I remind myself to make more of an effort to spend time with him. As the movie credits roll across the screen, Michael turns to face me.

  “How are you coping with everything that’s happened recently?” he asks.

  Sighing, I rest my head back against the seat. “It’s been a lot to take in, but I’m doing okay.”

  “And you’re getting along with Hawk and the guys alright? You’ve been spending a lot of time with them.”

  “Yeah, they’ve been great actually.” I have to suppress my smile as I think about them. “There’s been a lot to work through with Hawk, but we’re turning a corner now, and the others have been really accepting of me into their fold.”

  A look I can’t place crosses Michael’s features, but I blink and it’s gone. Studying him for a second longer, he looks like his old self so I brush it off. Probably just the way the dim lights in here glance across his face.

  “So you’re like friends with them all now? Even though they bullied you first semester.”

  There’s a tightness in his voice, and I don’t appreciate the accusatory tone he’s using as I turn to look directly at him.

  “Things are different now,” I snap. Yeah, it sounds weak to my ears, and I can’t blame him for thinking I’m insane, but he doesn’t know about everything that’s going on, or what we’ve had to deal with.

  I sigh, trying my best to let go of my anger. “It’s complicated, but they’ve apologized and we’re working through it,” I tell him.

  Gathering our stuff, we start to head back toward the dorms.

  “We should do this again,” he says. “Sunday night?”

  “Ehh, let me get back to you. Things have been hectic recently, and I just want to make sure there’s no Davenport nonsense I need to deal with.” I know I’m being a bitch by blowing him off, but I do have a lot on my plate right now, and Sunday is only a few days away, plus we still have our standard Saturday night movie night with Emilia so I don’t really see a need to do two.

  “Oh, yeah, sure.”

  ***

  I’m sitting in the library, with Daniel beside me and his friends taking up the rest of the seats at the table, when Mason comes in, his slut of the month draped all over him. It’s been three weeks since we started up this stupid tradition again, and I still can’t get used to seeing any of the guys with one of them. Uncontrollable rage overtakes me every time I have to watch them with one of their sluts. It’s a miracle no one has gotten a knife in the eye or a fork to the hand yet.

  He’s clearly not having a good day—if the furious look on his face is any indicator—but if he looked pissed off when he entered, it’s nothing compared to the look on his face when he notices me sitting with Daniel and his friends. His head looks like it’s about to pop off his shoulders, and I can’t do anything but silently apologize with my eyes as he storms over to a table nearby and bangs his bag onto the surface, not giving a shit that he’s disturbing everyone around him.

  It’s not my fault. I was just sitting here minding my own business when Daniel and his friends walked in. I saw him try to convince them to go to another table, but they weren’t having any of it and practically dragged him over here to sit with me, so now we’re stuck playing pretend while we do our best to focus on our schoolwork.

  Of course, now that Mason is here, zero work is going to get done. I watch as his little slut follows him to the table, oblivious to his rage as she tries to sit in his lap, laughing like it’s some sort of game when he shoves her off of him.

  I try to ignore him, focusing back on my workbook and tablet, but I can feel his furious eyes like laser beams burning into the side of my head. Giving up on trying to ignore him, I decide the best thing to do is give him an outlet for all that rage. Biting on my lower lip in thought, I decide to play a dangerous game with the fuming beast glaring at me.

  Leaning in, I whisper in Daniel’s ear, “Play a game with me?” I flick a glance in Mason’s direction, and he hesitantly agrees. “Put your arm around me,” I whisper, squashing my smirk.

  Doing as I tell him, he leans in, draping his arm across the back of my chair, his fingers dangling over my shoulder. Pretending to focus on my work, I glance up at him through my eyelashes, watching as Mason’s features tighten, his jaw clenched as he strangles
his stylus, oblivious to the girl who may as well be doing naked star jumps beside him.

  Daniel bends down to whisper in my ear, and to anyone else, it would look like two lovers sharing a secret. “You’re going to get me killed,” he says, half joking. I let out a girly giggle, batting my eyelashes at him like he just said the sweetest thing.

  Rolling his eyes, he continues with his dramatics, “He’s going to bury my body out in the forest. Tell my family that I love them. Make sure my brother gets my baseball card collection.” He sighs. “I never got the chance to tell Wendi how amazing I thought her tits were.” This time, my laugh is real as he continues on with the theatrics.

  “Jeez, will you two get a room already,” one of his friends hollers, his words loud enough to carry across to Mason’s nearby table.

  It’s the last straw for Mason as he jumps to his feet, sending his chair crashing to the floor as his bimbo gasps in shock and he stomps toward us, hauling me out of my seat.

  Glancing back over my shoulder, I ignore the shocked looks from the other guys at the table as I give Daniel a conspiratorial wink, and he shakes his head while rolling his eyes at me.

  Mason yanks me along behind him until we reach the back of the library where the private study rooms are. Barging into one with people in it, he barks, “Out,” glowering at everyone as they hastily gather their stuff and run out of the room like their asses are on fire.

  He slams the door shut behind them, using his large body to push me against the door.

  Fire glows in his bright blue eyes, mixed with carnal need and desire. Shoving his hand between my thighs, he cups my pussy. He curls his fingers beneath the fabric of my panties before tearing them clean off me in a move that leaves me panting.

  Clamping my dripping wet pussy in his hand, he growls out, “This cunt is mine.” He slides his fingers through my slick wetness, coating them before sliding further back, pressing the tip of his finger against the tight ring of muscle. “This ass is mine.” His eyes flick down to my lips, the thumb of his other hand pushing its way past my teeth. I suck him into my mouth, licking his thumb with my tongue. “That dirty mouth of yours is mine.”